


Blue lights but no blue clothes

by Killer_Rabbit_of_Caerbannog



Series: Along came a spider [2]
Category: The Avengers - All Fandoms
Genre: M/M, Superfamily
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-15
Updated: 2012-08-15
Packaged: 2017-11-12 05:17:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,322
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/487117
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Killer_Rabbit_of_Caerbannog/pseuds/Killer_Rabbit_of_Caerbannog
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Iron Man didn't find Peter. Peter found Iron Man. In which Tony is tortured in a boutique baby store and his new baby really is very, very special.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Blue lights but no blue clothes

**Author's Note:**

> This is a sort-of prequel to 'The first time Steve and Tony become fathers', exploring Peter's origins in this mythos.
> 
> Freeforming it again, this time in the POV of a hyper-intelligent baby. Inspired by the art of the lovely Mandylasers.

 

##### The light at the end of the tunnel

 

Dark. Warm. Safe. Dark.

\---

Dark. Warm. Safe. Dark. Alone...... Waiting.

\---

Dark. Warm. Safe. Bright. Bright. Seeing. Moving. Big moving thing. Other thing. Other. Sound. Noise. Bright. Not alone. Happy.

\---

Noises. Talking. Responding. Moving thing, other thing, bright light place. Away. Blocked. Can’t reach. Can’t escape...... Alone. Waiting.

\---

A man. Other man. Talking man. Teaching man. Unreachable man. _Creator_. Speaking. Teaching.

\---

Warm. Safe. Dark. Alone. Warm. Dark. But learning. Moving. Bright light, no longer alone. Creator man. Touches block. Hand. Hand on block. Noise. Speaking.

“Hello, Peter.”

\---

Understand. Peter can understand.

Noises and talking and _learning_ , many things to learn. But no talking, no responding to Creator man. Can’t. Blocked. Alone. Warm, safe, quiet.

Creator man comes. And goes, takes light. Dark alone. Comes back. Brings light and noise and _things_ , so many new things to learn, to _know_. To understand.

Other man is Creator man.

Peter is Peter.

Peter is learning.

Can’t speak like Creator man, can’t move. Floating, watching, learning. Blocked. Peter is blocked. Creator man speaks, moves, teaches outside, beyond block. Peter can’t go there, only watch, learn, grow. Wait. Alone.

Peter is waiting.

\---

Noise. Too loud noise, not talking noise, bad noise, too loud. Hurting. Dark then light then dark, dark, _dark_.

Silence.

Light.

Blue light.

A man. Not a man. Like a man. Metal. Moving metal-looking man. Metal man.

This is new. This is _interesting_.

Peter watches Metal man. Blue light on Metal man, or in Metal man, Peter isn’t sure. Wants to touch. Wants to _know_.

Metal man moves around, touches tanks that contain Peter’s brothers. Failures. Creator man spoke about Peter’s brothers, who don’t look right, not like a man at all but are lumpy and strange colours. Some alive, some dead. Peter’s not a failure, Creator man said.

Metal man’s face goes up and then a face _underneath_ , a face like Creator man.

Peter doesn’t understand.

Metal man speaks. “JARVIS, these are... please tell me they’re not what I think they are.”

Different voice. Comes from Metal man but not same voice and mouth doesn’t move. Peter is confused.

_“Scans indicate that they are indeed human fetuses, sir. However, it appears some are mutations containing traces of foreign DNA.”_

Metal man’s mouth moves this time, voice same as earlier. “‘Foreign’ how? Like alien from outer space ‘foreign’?”

_“No, sir. They all appear to be terrestrial – most of the strains seem to belong to the phylum Arthropoda, though several DNA strands show trace signs that belong to Vertebrata.”_

Metal man strikes the wall, scaring Peter with the loud metallic clang.

“That sick _fuck_ ,” Metal man says, “Growing mutated kids in tanks; that is just so wrong. Yo, JARVIS. There any graveyards nearby? Least these kids deserve is a proper burial.”

_“St Augustine’s Church is located seven miles north-north-west of here with a small graveyard.”_

“Sorry your freedom came too late for you, little guy,” Metal man says, stepping back.

Blue light from hand. A sharp noise. Tank breaks.

Failure wrong dead brother drops down, out, free. Not in tank, but _outside_. Metal man crouches and picks up dead free brother and begins moving away.

Peter panics. No no no no no no no. Metal man can’t go yet, not yet, not with stupid lucky dead free brother. Peter wants to go outside too.

Metal man is breaking tanks with dead lumpy failure brothers, but Peter won’t wait any longer, moves hand and _hits_.

Block is hard and still and _hurt_ , makes noise but too quiet. Peter hits again. Hurt hurt hand hurt, but noise is loud, makes Metal man turn to Peter.

Metal man finds Peter. Comes close. Puts dead failure free brother on table and comes closer. Peter is happy.

“Son of a b- JARVIS, you seeing this?”

_“From the data on hand, it would appear not all of Doctor Stromm’s experiments failed. The baby seems to be the only one to have successfully grown past the fetal stage and survived. Life signs appear normal.”_

“Baby in a tank. _Baby that’s alive in a tank_. Okay, _okay_ , I’m a certified genius, I can totally handle this. Um, yeah, okay, so I’ll just- yeah, I don’t know if I should break it or- Will the little guy be okay if I bust him out JARVIS?”

_“There is a 37% chance that the external environment will be fatally hazardous to the baby.”_

“Haha, crap, no well- I never was a very smart gambler. Here goes nothing.”

Blue light is close close close, in chest, in hand. Blue light on hand. Hand on block.

Peter is happy, soon will be free.

Blue light.

Loud noise.

_Whoosh._

Outside.

Not warm, _not warm_ , horrible dry cold hard. Loud. Voice.

“Oh crap, shit, here no, I gotcha’ little guy, I got- hey now don’t cry, there there, oh _fuck_ , break a mysterious glass case, potentially kill baby, what was I _thinking_?”

Speaking. Close. Peter isn’t happy. Cold dry strange.

But.

This is _outside_.

Metal man holds Peter, hard and cold but floating, just like before, so Peter is a little bit happier. But not warm. Or wet. Outside is _dry_. This is air. Peter’s not sure he likes air. It’s too cold. And dry. Metal man brings Peter closer to blue light. Warm. Blue light is warm. Much better.

“Hey, no more crying, yes, good, okay, this is good. Well, not good. Actually, this is a total fucking disaster. Life signs were all creepy monster thingies until _this_. I thought you said the little guy showed normal readings, but he went nuts. Shit, JARVIS, would it kill ya to warn a guy next time.”

Metal man makes noise but doesn’t talk. Peter is confused.

“ _My apologies, sir. I didn’t think it necessary to warn you about how newborns act._ ”

“Newbo- _oh hell no!_ No, did I just give birth? I did, didn’t I? Fuck, I so did. I’m like the surrogate mom. I’m a _mom_.”

_“I don’t think that’s quite right, sir.”_

“I am having a massive freak out here, JARVIS, gimme some slack.”

Metal man is talking but there’s someone else talking too, except Peter can’t see anyone else. He doesn’t like that. Still doesn’t understand where other voice comes from.

But......

Blue light.

Oh, Peter likes this. Blue light in the Metal man’s body. Peter touches. Hard but _warm_. Oh yes, he likes this very much. Metal man’s chest is warm and light and blue. And a nice voice. Tired. Peter closes his eyes. Happy.

Outside is very big. And strange. It makes Peter tired.

Light in the dark. Warm in the cold. Safe on the outside. No more waiting. No more alone.

 

 

 

##### Don't look so blue!

Tony is in shock. Tony knows Tony’s in shock because Tony is speaking in third person. Aloud. This is being largely ignored by the rest of the store’s inhabitants and Tony deeply resents the lack of attention and concern.

“Please, will you stop narrating yourself like that?” Pepper asks from across the cramped store. “You already have everyone’s attention as it is.”

“Do I?” says Tony loudly and as theatrically as possible. “I’m sorry, I don’t quite know where I am, or what’s going on, seeing as I’m in shock, and therefore must be handled gingerly and with great care.”

The fifty-something store clerk, whose name badge reads RITA, giggles and pinches Tony’s cheeks, which he allows because he’ll take a distraction in whatever form it presents itself right now. He smirks triumphantly at Pepper, but the intended target is distracted by the return of Happy from his food run.

His sulking is ruined as one of the store’s fellow customers clucks her tongue and lightly slaps Tony’s hands. “Really, Mr Stark, you’re holding him all _wrong_. You need to support his head more, like this – oops, wait, just slide your hand, ah, there, that’s better. Wouldn’t want the little dear to fall, would we? No we wouldn’t, _no we wouldn’t_! Abubububu.”

There are some things even Iron Man fears to face.

“Help, Pep!” Tony cries a touch hysterically as the woman coos at the little bundle of blankets in his arms. The baby, who at first seemed baffled by the baby-talk from all the women in the store, now waves two pudgy little fists happily. “I can’t handle this. Remember that shock I mentioned earlier? The baby-talk and the women and the parenting tips _are not helping!_ ”

“Your turn to deal with him, hon,” Pepper tells her husband, not looking up from the pile of jumpsuits she was inspecting with a critical eye.

“Happy,” Tony moans, because he can and it’s also 7.08 am and he’s not had coffee in far too long. Happy rolls his eyes and plucks the baby from Tony’s arms, and replaces him with a paper bag that, judging by the smell, may or may not contain a fresh bagel.

Further inspection reveals it is a bagel. Tony is pleased.

And silent, but only for the amount of time it takes to devour his breakfast, because Pepper is picking out bibs that look suspiciously like they might be blue.

“No, don’t even think about decking the little guy out in blue, Pepper, or I’ll have to stop you. I’ve still got my suit on; you know this is not an empty threat.” His intimidating glower is slightly ruined by the crowd of mothers still cooing over the baby now in Happy’s arms. Time to relocate.

Pepper sighs, putting down her collection of baby clothes. “What’s wrong with blue?”

“Are you kidding me?” Tony says, winding his way through the clustered racks of babywear.  “He’s got brown eyes and hair, look at the colour tones there! His brown and blue do _not_ go together. Besides, urgh, can anyone say cliché? I don’t wanna look like I’ve just stepped off the front of _National Enquirer_ with some stupid headline like ‘ _Stark and son: Tony’s secret baby!_ ’ and a crappy pap shot of me in sweats and no makeup on.”

Pepper snorts derisively. “I know for a fact that you would never step foot outside in just sweats unless you were very drunk.”

“That was _years_ ago, Pep! You just can’t let bygones be bygones, can you? And, hey, Rita, all of this stuff, got it in red? Or maybe pink. It’s kinda avant-garde, but in this day and age gender stereotypes like colours have to be confronted, you know? Besides, us Starks are non-conformists... oh my god, did I just unofficially claim the baby?”

Grinning, Pepper patted Tony’s arm. “You kind of did, which, by the way, I still think is a good idea no m–” she talks over Tony’s protests, “ _No matter_ what you might think, Tony, you are not your father, and with Steve’s help I think you will be a fantastic parent.”

Hmmm, uncomfortable territory there that he really would rather not discuss whilst in a boutique baby store.

Rita chooses that moment to reappear with a pile of red clothes and Tony gratefully leaps on the opportunity.

“We’ll take them! No no no no no, don’t need to try them on, I’m sure little... Ton- no, not gonna call you that. Ste- nope, way too sentimental, ok, um, Pep- no, er, Hap- _what_? I’m not gonna call my kid ‘Pepper’ no matter how much I love you; the kid’s gonna have enough issues to deal with without the added stress of a girl’s name. Oh wait, gimme a sec, I think I remember seeing... yep, right there on the tank. Least the doc was thoughtful enough to name his experiments, and not call them something weird, like, ‘Stormaggedon’ or something. Anyways, sorry Pep, the kid’s got a name already: Peter. There, saved you a long and arduous journey looking through baby books. We’ll take the red ones to go, and _alley-oop_ , here we go Peter, yes, no, I’ve got him, its _fine_ , and we’ll- oh yeah, we’ll also take everything in the store that isn’t blue.”

“Wha-? No, don’t you da- _Tony!_ ”

If anyone were to later accuse Tony Stark of fleeing into the car at Pepper’s outraged shriek, he would politely ask them to try and last five minutes in an argument with Pepper Hogan, and try asking that question again.

\---

Tony has finally managed to get the spit-up cleaned off the Mark VII when Pepper corners him with a thunderous expression.

“It was a one-time thing,” Tony says automatically. “And necessary in ways I can’t articulate right now.”

Pepper ignores that, and taps an accusing finger against the arc reactor. “How come I haven’t heard from Steve yet? I’d have thought he would have stopped round by now. Or called, at least.”

“Um...”

Pepper’s eyes narrow dangerously. “Because you _have_ called him already, haven’t you. Or JARVIS, or, or Natalie? _Haven’t you_.”

“Ummm.”

_Whack._

“Ow, Pep, is violence really the answer? I ju- _ow!_ Ok, alright, calling them, calling, right now, look, phone in hand and everything.”

From the lounge room, Peter begins to cry. At Pepper’s angry shove, Tony wanders in and awkwardly sits on the sofa and relieves Happy from baby-duty. Peter immediately stops crying and happily returns to trying to pry open his new rattle.

There’s a click over the phone and a cool voice asks, “ _Miss Potts?_ ”

Aw crap, that can only mean JARVIS redirected him from the mansion because no one was home, and the only reason no one would be home and at S.H.I.E.L.D. is –

He is in _so_ much trouble.

Taking a deep, calming breath (only on pain of torture or coffee deprivation would Tony ever admit that dealing with Natasha frightened him more than Pepper, but that was mostly because Agent Romanoff sometimes looked at him in a way that suggested she was seriously considering throwing him from a tall building), Tony pasted on his best smile and said, “Hey, ‘Tasha.”


End file.
